“8:34 a.m.: Hurricane Marge changes course. Again.“
That’s the lead to one of eight advertisements created by Point to Point Communications (P2P) for Simonton Windows, headquartered in Parkersburg, W. Va., about hurricane-proof windows. The full-page spreads appear in construction magazines and play off the hurricane theme in depicting typical customers, such as Hurricane Marge, a sweet old lady plagued by indecision.
Cleveland-based advertising agency P2P developed its ICE methodology to generate successful marketing strategies for clients, most of whom are in the building products and interior design industries. The ad agency studies three areas, each represented by a letter in the acronym ICE, before building a brand campaign: Influencers (the people who influence product purchases), the Channel through which products go to market and End users.
“Through our ICE methodology, we learned that builders aren’t as concerned with hurricane-proof windows as they are with keeping jobs on schedule,“ says Mark Goren, president of P2P.
Approximately three years ago, P2P began specializing in the building marketplace. That focus, coupled with its ICE approach, has been a winner for the company.
Goren founded Point to Point Communications in 1981 as an art studio for a typesetting company. It has evolved to a 20-employee ad agency with about 10 core clients nationwide. “We’ve grown, and it’s not [just] a function of being in Cleveland,“ says Goren. “We’re going to cities across the country and pitching ourselves.“
While Goren runs P2P’s accounting and new business potentials, Mike Hudock, who joined the company three years ago, oversees the creative side.
Goren and Hudock are quick to credit P2P’s employees, about half of whom handle creative work, for the company’s achievements. And it has many.
P2P earned recognition in 2004 and 2005 from the American Advertising Federation, sponsors of the prestigious ADDY Awards honoring creative excellence in advertising. Last year, P2P received gold trophies for a poster for United Way of Greater Cleveland and a guerilla marketing campaign for The Cleveland Free Clinic.
While the awards are nice, Hudock says, “We’re not an award-driven agency. We’re a work-driven agency, and great work delivers great results.“ P2P’s work covers the gamut of advertising mediums, from print to the Internet. “We’re comfortable in any medium as long as that medium effectively reaches its audience,“ says Goren. “To simplify it, we develop strategies and create messages to deliver those strategies.“
Selecting the ideal delivery method is a challenge in today’s marketplace. “Advertising has fundamentally changed,“ says Goren. “There is no Holy Grail for a medium.“
For The Cleveland Free Clinic campaign, P2P designed a brochure with a donation card. The front reads “People Cannot be Thrown Away“ and depicts an image of a crumbled black-and-white photo of a person’s face.
Point to Point Communications has a five-year growth plan, although Goren and Hudock are tight-lipped about the details. They will continue to concentrate on the building products niche and gradually add others to their repertoire. “The days of being a generalized ad agency are done,“ says Goren.
The agency’s growth hinges on finding the right employees. “Our biggest challenge, now and forever, is going to be talent,“ says Goren. “With talent, you can do anything.“ P2P has added a handful of new staff members in the past year or so, attracting creative employees from Minnesota and Oklahoma, as well as native Northeast Ohioans.
“Good creative is the way to build companies, and in our industry, there’s way too much ’average’ out there,“ says Hudock.